Bunch of Stuff

Lots going on lately. Whenever I think about getting caught up on my blog, there’s so much to write it’s a little overwhelming.

Housing

I’m back to Plan A with regard to housing. I will most likely keep my townhouse as a rental and buy something else. This gives me more flexibility with regard to moving, and will actually cost less out of pocket than if I were to sell. Instead of needing to cover closing fees, a down payment and the difference between sale price and mortgage balance, I only have to come up with the down payment for the new place. I even have prospective tenants coming to see the place this weekend.

If I do need to sell, the other townhouse like mine sold fast and we’ll know how much it sold for in a couple of weeks.

Activities

Felix and I started swimming lessons again last week. I didn’t like the first lesson at all – the pool was cold, it was super crowded and chaotic. But Felix had a good time so we went again, and the second class was much calmer and warmer. Felix even “graduated” to wearing goggles because he can blow nose bubbles. He loves the water now as much as when he was a baby, even getting his ears wet.

We’ve also started going to a free music class at the library on Saturday mornings. Felix doesn’t fully participate yet, but he’s good at sitting in a circle, getting a shaker and putting it back, and listening to the teacher when she reads a story at the end. He spends lots of the class running little laps and diving into my arms, and is very close to doing full somersaults on his own, so I’m looking into tumbling classes this spring when swimming has wrapped up. 

Ready to plow me over in music class.

Even though Felix goes to daycare as does well, it’s not the same as learning to sit, listen and follow instructions. It’s been really neat to see him grow so much just by going to a couple of organized classes. The first time we went to music, he cried and cried when he had to give up his shaker. By the second class, he walked right up to the basket and put it away.

Idaho is one of a few states with no public preschool, and a legislator from my district is introducing a bill this session to launch a 3-year pilot program. The majority here argues we “can’t afford it” and “we shouldn’t let the state raise our kids”. I guess they see no connection between having the lowest rates of education and highest rates of minimum wage jobs.

Daycare Bully

Last week, Felix started crying and clinging to me when we arrived at his daycare. He’d also nervously scan the room when we walked in. Naturally this sent up a red flag for me, and it turns out there’s a new toddler who’s “a hitter and a biter”. One morning I saw her walk right up to Felix and yank his hair till he cried, and another day he came home with a bite mark on his face. His daycare provider is very aware of the issue and doing what she can to curb the behavior. Hopefully the situation resolves very soon – it’s hard to walk away from a scared, crying kid.

Language Explosion

We are finally experiencing the so-called language explosion. Over the past week Felix has been repeating numerous words, and even ventured into 3-syllable territory with “brawberry” (strawberry) last night. Coat, toes, teeth, book, sock, bowl, down, okay, pom pom, off and on are all new in the past few days. I read a tip on another blog (was it SurlyMama?) that said to allow up to one minute for your child to repeat a word to you, and sure enough, as soon as I started giving Felix more time to respond, he was repeating a lot more. I think we have a tendency to say, “Do you want more cereal?...More cereal?...Okay!” and they figure there’s no need to say the words, because we’ll do it for them in 5 seconds.

Sometimes he puts himself in timeout for fun.